Wednesday Wondering: What’s the Ideal SEC?

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Hey Big XII, look what you used to be and look at the disgrace you are today! Monsters!

Wait…Monster is their corporate sponsor. Now it makes sense. Kind of.

Anyway, one oddity about modern P4 conferences…the SEC is the only conference where their is a contiguous border with all other members…

Well, that’s a point a pride, I suppose. At least we don’t have teams flying from across the west coast to the east coast to play in meaningless, bottom-feeder games, like having Stanford and Cal fly to Charlotte in the spring to play the most pointless ACC tournament game of all time…winner got to go home, when they didn’t want to be there in the first place.

Anyway, for today’s Wondering…what is the “ideal” SEC? Bigger? Smaller? Who would be in it, and why would you rationalize dropping or adding the teams?

I’d kind of prefer to drop the Texas teams, Oklahoma, and Mizzou and Arkansas. In football terms, anyway, it feels like Arkansas has been around a good while and just frankly doesn’t seem to care anymore, and really Mizzou just doesn’t seem to fit.

While that would leave us with 11 teams, if we had to add another I wouldn’t be opposed to dropping South Carolina. Outside of a few interesting years…yecch.

But, if we had to go in the opposite and just start adding more teams in the conference race for excess, give me a Virginia and an NC State, and if we’re dabbling around the northern areas that much, give me West Virginia and Kansas State. Make it an even twenty and keep it contiguous. Why not.

What’s your thoughts, at least today?

34 thoughts on “Wednesday Wondering: What’s the Ideal SEC?”

  1. Drop Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, the Texas teams, Arkansas, and I could even say LSU. Add FSU, GT, Clemson. That would be two teams from each state in a true Southeastern format. If you wanted to go to 14, throw in Miami and add back LSU.

    • Can’t drop the crazy cajuns! They’re an OG member and are the fun crazy cousins you enjoy seeing most at the family reunion. Then you are glad you don’t have to hang out with them all the time. Just every few years.

    • Of the many good things about UGA football in ’85 was whipping FU and the introduction of Misters Lars Tate and Tim Worley…GO DAWGS!!

  3. Mizzou, OU, TU and the Aggies would be my choices as schools that don’t belong in the SEC. The reality is all except Mizzou are brands tv wants. No conference can be competitive without tv dollars.

    I just have no interest in a future where schools field professional teams. Teams owned by others paying schools for their name, image and likeness.

    I’m just happy Kirby got a couple before the guardrails began falling off the sport we grew up with.

  4. Is there a map like that for the ACC? Ahh, those traditional rivalries like Myammy v. Cal. Makes me misty eyed with nostalgic feelings.

  5. Been saying it for a while. Go back to 10. I know money is running this mess, but l loved like it was. These new ones just don’t fit. I think it takes away some real regular rivalries!

  6. Kick out the interlopers. Yes, Arkansas and South Carolina are part of that. I’ve grown to hate the Texas schools. Oklahoma seems to be a good fit culturally, but they just don’t belong. Missouri isn’t southern or eastern and never will be.

    I would be willing to keep South Carolina to get Clemson. Add FSU and the two North Carolina public schools. Combined with the original SEC members, that’s a true Southeastern conference.

    While I wouldn’t want to kick out an original SEC member, I would be ok with telling Vandy to hit the road in exchange for Virginia Tech.

    • This is basically what I was preparing to post. My preference is a strong regional conference where it it possible to reasonably drive to most all road games. Ditch UT, TAMU, Missouri and Arkansas; add FSU,, Clemson, and 2 North Carolina schools. I don’t give a damn about TV markets..

      • Do TV markets even matter any more? That seemed to all be driven by cable TV carriage fees for the regional networks, which isn’t so much of a thing any more in the era of streaming. Now it’s just about having teams that attract eyeballs nationwide and thus increase the valuation of the conference TV package.

        • Your last sentence is exactly why a super D1 broken away from the NCAA is the likely end game in all of this and why the SEC and B1G are vehemently opposed to Cody Campbell’s Senate bill.

          Those schools will be:

          ACC:
          Clemson
          Florida State
          Miami
          North Carolina
          NC State (possibly)
          Virginia
          Virginia Tech
          Notre Dame (and they’ll be forced to join a “league”)

          B1G:
          Indiana
          Iowa
          Michigan
          Michigan State (possibly)
          Nebraska
          Ohio State
          Oregon
          Penn State
          UCLA
          USC
          Washington
          Wisconsin (possibly)

          Big 12:
          Arizona
          Arizona State
          BYU
          Kansas (possibly)
          Oklahoma State (possibly)
          Texas Tech (possibly – this is exactly why Campbell is behind this bill … not because he wants to save college sports but because he wants TTU to be relevant)

          SEC:
          Alabama
          Auburn
          Florida
          Georgia
          Kentucky (possibly)
          LSU
          Oklahoma
          Ole Miss (possibly)
          South Carolina (possibly)
          Tennessee
          Texas
          Texas AM

          That’s 38 schools (29 if ever “possibly” were taken out).

          If it’s a true break for all sports including men’s basketball, I would suggest all of the B1G and SEC make it and few additional powerhouse basketball schools from the Power 4 make it as well.

  8. Assuming we need 16 for our 2 divisions in the coming Power 64 league:

    East- UGA, FL, Bama, USC, Clemson, NC, NC State, Tennessee

    West- LSU, OM, MS, TAMU, Texas, OU, Ark, Texas Tech

    Vandy and KY relegated and Okie St in pool to move up, same for FSU and Virginia.

    Kick Mizzo to B1G.

    • Auburn sucks and all, but erasing them from the conference is the ultimate “Welcome to irrelevance” that only a school with make believe championships could appreciate.

  9. If we’re kicking teams out, I would remove Texas, Oklahoma, A&M, & Mizzou and rest at 12 (but I have no problem with going to 10 and removing Arkansas and South Caroliana as they just don’t fit). BUT, if we’re being realistic, knowing that no one will be kicked out, I’d go BACK to divisions and put UF, UGA, SC, Tenn, Vandy, UK, AU and Bama in the East and TX, A&M, OU, LSU, Ark, Mizzou, Ole Miss and Miss State in the West. You play 8 conference games (as 9 SEC conference games and every other conference playing 9 conference games is NOT equal) and rotate 1 from the other conference (playing every team often is NOT a big deal to me) and play the SECC game between the division winners like we used to.

    Another possibility is that if we’re going to try to keep up with the BIG 10 and expand (as I figure that we’ll probably do), just make sure to choose from places that make sense and go for FSU, Clemson, Virginia, VA Tech, North Carolina, and/or NC State to keep the states contiguous AND Southern (plus who wants the other choices of New Mexico, New Mexico State Kansas, K-State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Iowa State, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, West Virginia, Louisville or Ga Tech?). Ga Tech would actually not bother me to ensure that we keep that rivalry, but their “fanbase” is so pathetic and petty that I’d hate to see how much more obnoxious that they’d become in the SEC.

  10. 10 of the SECs 13 national championships during the 2025-2026 athletic season came from TAMU, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma & USCe. Be careful what you ask for!!!!!
    FSU, UNC, NCST & Virginia would bring you nothing….NADA!

        • It just means more has nothing to do with national titles and everything to do with fan passion in the league.

          I’ve stopped having any allegiance to the Southeastern Conference as it has expanded. I would never pound my chest over a national title won by any school except LSU that is west of the Mississippi River.

          • I dont care about Texas at all. Happy to play them OOC or in the CFP, but after a few seasons listening to them, I understand why everyone in every conference they have been in hates them and thinks they are arrogant blowhards. They are worse than Auburn fans with oil money. Listned to some of the most arrogant visiting fans ever in Athens last year. If you could buy TX fans for what they’re worth and sell them for what they think they’re worth, you’d have Jerry Jones money. FTMF

  11. Texas has to be the 1st to go, no matter what else happens. Our conference blatantly cheated for them in our first visit in Austin. Have never seen the refs call a penalty, walk off the yardage, SET THE BALL, and then pick up the flag and cancel the penalty. It’s just not done, upset fans be damned. Biggest, most obvious cheat I have ever seen in CFB. Hell, even Kirby called them out about it on national TV. Just imagine the cheating for Texas we don’t see. Screw those guys, we don’t need them.

  12. For contraction –
    go back to pre ‘92

    For expansion to 20 –
    nerds, fsu, clemson sucks, Okl State

    For expansion to 24 – (the SEC super league)
    4 above + NC, NC State, VA, Va Tech

  13. Just dreaming, go back to the original 10, play everybody, then have a 4 team playoff, and crown the winner the Nat’l Champs.

    Add 4 teams, UVA, UNC, Ok State & Tulane. Go back to 2 divisions, and play your division opponents, 6 team playoff with 1st place in division, getting the byes. All neutral site playoff games Orlando, Jacksonville, Nashville, Dallas & Atlanta. Winner crowned Nat’ Champs.
    Let the others conferences play with themselves.

  14. Looking at the SEC footprint, it pains me to say with what’s going on in CFB we’re not terrible. Lose Missouri and add UNC & NC State, maybe. Definitely, get rid of Vanderbilt. There’s no place for a private school in Sweet Baby Jesus’s conference. Especially with the way they lie about cost of attendance to manager their rosters dirtier than Auburn dreams of, steal conference payouts for non-athletics and hire Raper Lover coaches like Jimmy Franklin to cover-up sexual assaults – other than that they suck.

  17. Personally I don’t care much about kicking anyone out as long as we don’t have to play a game on a Thursday or Friday (except maybe Thanksgiving).

  18. Drop Mizzou, KY, Miss St., and Vandy.
    Add FSU, Miami, Clemson, and GT
    Conference schedule would be lit.

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